From Baby Steps To
by unlikelyRLshipper
Summary: Reaching back into last season...a post-ep for 5.10 The Triangle, trying to address an issue I had with the episode. D/L fluff. Please Enjoy!


**OK, so 'The Triangle' was on a couple of weeks ago and I managed to catch the proposal scene again (too cute!), but there's always been something about the end of that scene that's really bothered me. This is my way of rectifying it.**

**If I owned CSI:NY, that scene would have probably gone differently, but I don't, so it went exactly as you saw it.**

**And for those of you who are following **_**Aftermath**_**, this is just a little detour from it, I'm posting the next chapter at the same time.**

**I hope you enjoy!**

**From Baby Steps To…**

Upon leaving Mac's office after telling him their great news, Danny and Lindsay headed back to the locker room to collect their stuff before heading out for the night. Walking through the nearly deserted lab in the direction of the elevator, Danny was surprised when he felt Lindsay's hand grab his and interlace their fingers, but thinking about what had been said between them in the past hour, he was glad that she had.

They continued to walk hand in hand as they exited the lab and walked through the streets on their way to the nearby subway station. They didn't have to wait long for the train that would take them to Lindsay's apartment, where Danny had promised to cook her a light dinner. Stepping into the packed train, Lindsay realized that they would both have to stand, and she smiled to herself because she finally felt comfortable enough in their relationship again to do something she had always loved doing in just such a situation.

Danny pulled her along to the nearest place where he could grab an overhead bar and Lindsay could grab hold of one of the vertical bars, but he watched as she completely ignored the bar right in front of her and instead used Danny as her support. She wrapped both her arms around his body and snuggled into his chest, a gesture she had not done in many months. Even after they had gotten back together in the wake of Ruben Sandoval's death and rode the subway together, she chose to grab a nearby bar instead of relying on him. Danny took it as a sign that things really were getting back to normal, and he was beyond happy about it, but there was still one question that had been nagging him all day, and he just needed an answer to it. He promised himself he would get it before the night was over.

Hours later, after enjoying some pancakes (Lindsay had a craving for them, and Danny promised her that she would love his mom's recipe – and she did), they sat down and talked about how well Mac handled the fact that Lindsay was pregnant and they tried to come up with how they would tell the rest of the team. The entire time, Danny's question continued to bother him, and he just couldn't wait any longer to ask it.

"Hey Linds, can I ask you something about what happened today out by the coffee cart?"

Lindsay looked over at him and she could see that he looked quite scared. She thought they had already discussed what had happened there, but she could tell that there was something important that Danny wanted to know. Turning on the couch to face him more properly, she said "Yes" in a timid voice. Danny let out a long breath before ploughing ahead:

"Why did you walk away from me after you turned down my proposal?"

This had not been the type of question Lindsay had been expecting, so her initial attempt at an answer was "I…uh…" and then silence.

Danny decided to expand on his question to try and make it easier for her to answer. "I wasn't going to try and pressure you into changing your mind, I just wanted to make sure things weren't going to be completely weird between us. Now I know that we're good and are gonna focus on taking baby steps, but that kind of confirmation would've been nice to know earlier on, you know?"

Once Danny finished speaking, they both sat in silence, Danny waiting for her to respond and Lindsay still trying to formulate a coherent answer in her head. After several moments, Lindsay was finally ready to speak.

"I'm sorry that you were left in limbo all day Danny, but I had to get out of there – it's not that I didn't want to stay, but I couldn't." Confusion crossed Danny's face, but he waited for her to continue. "I felt tears coming on and I didn't want you to have to console me after I had just turned you down because that would've been just too cruel, but the main reason why I left was because I couldn't handle the look of hurt on your face when a big part of me was screaming for me to say 'Yes.' If I had stayed, I don't know if I could've stopped myself from changing my answer."

When she stopped speaking, Lindsay looked into Danny's eyes and saw surprise reflected in them. It was now her turn to be confused. "Danny, why do you look surprised?"

"Because despite what you said to me outside Mac's office, a part of me wasn't really sure that you wanted to marry me," he replied sheepishly.

Lindsay let out a sigh and placed one hand on Danny's cheek, feeling him press back against her hand as she turned his head to make sure they were face to face when she said the next part.

"Danny, that's exactly where I envisioned these baby steps to be leading: to you and me getting married."

"Really?" Lindsay could hear the hope in his voice and it caused her to break out into a wide smile.

"Yes. I don't want us to be working together towards just being a solid parental unit while our relationship remained ambiguous. I want this to work out between us for the long term. I'm not in any rush to get married, which was part of the reason why I said 'No.' It doesn't matter to me that we may not be married before the baby comes, and your proposal today seemed to be fuelled more by the baby than by us. I already know that we're in this together, so we'll get married when we're both ready."

"But how will we know when that is?"

"When you ask me and I say 'Yes'?" As soon as the answer came out of her mouth, Lindsay realized just how flippant it sounded, and she immediately tried to back track. "I'm not trying to make light of the courage you showed in asking me to marry you today, or of the knock to your pride because of my answer. I don't know how either of us will be able to tell when we're ready – maybe I'll just know and I'll start dropping hints, or you'll risk asking me again – I'm not expecting you to though."

Lindsay felt horrible about what she had said, even after her amendment, and as she started to turn away from Danny's face, he trapped her face between his hands and reassured her. "Lindsay, now that I know 100 percent with no room for error that it's a matter of _when_ and not _if_ you'll marry me, it won't be a risk for me to ask you again because eventually, when the time's right, the answer will be 'Yes.'"

Her smile returned and her eyes started to well up. "Well, I'm glad we're on the same page."

"Me too." Glancing quickly at the clock, Danny saw that it was getting late and he figured he should leave, though he really didn't want to leave after the conversation they'd just had. "It's getting late. I should go and let you go to bed, you've got the earlier shift tomorrow." He removed his hands from her face and started to stand when Lindsay's hand grabbed his arm.

"Stay."

He thought of protesting, but something in her voice told him not to, and he knew his protests would only be weak at best. He offered his other hand and pulled her up, reaching over once she was on her feet to turn off the lamps beside her couch. She led him to her bedroom and began to rummage through her drawers, finding a pair of his sweatpants, and handed them to him while she went into the bathroom to go change into the pyjamas she had left there that morning.

He stripped down to his wife beater and boxers and put the pants on quickly as he heard the toilet flush. She emerged from the bathroom all ready to go and he went in, as Lindsay occupied herself by folding his clothes and placing them in a pile at the end of her bed before turning her attentions to turning down the bed and getting in.

Danny found her there several minutes later and he thanked her for folding his clothes by placing a chaste kiss to her lips as he joined her in the bed. At first, he made no attempts to get closer to her, and he jumped a little bit when she got closer to him. "What's wrong?" she asked, her voice full of concern.

"Nothing. I just don't want to push the baby steps too far here."

"Crazy monkey sex would be too far, Danny, cuddling up with me and kissing me wouldn't."

Lindsay saw the blush rising up on Danny's face, even in the low light, and she couldn't help the giggle that escaped. In retaliation, Danny pulled her closer and fused his lips with hers, continuing to assault her lips with his own until oxygen was utterly necessary.

"Wiseass." She smiled again and burrowed further into his body, using his upper chest as her own personal pillow, feeling his arms tighten around her. His finger lifted her chin up and he looked her right in the eyes, much as he had done earlier in the evening, and said "I love you Lindsay."

Butterflies went crazy in Lindsay's stomach at hearing him say that, and she quickly replied with "I love you too Danny."

Sharing one last kiss, they closed their eyes and fell to sleep, thinking of the day when they would no longer be just boyfriend and girlfriend, but husband and wife.

**I realized while editing this that the butterflies in Lindsay's stomach could either truly be butterflies caused by Danny telling her that he loved her, or it could be interpreted as the baby moving for the first time, given what happened in the next episode. I leave it up to you to interpret that as you will, but it wasn't an intentional nod to the next episode on my part.**

**Thanks for reading everybody!**


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